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Biotic Interactions & Metanetworks
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All taxa interact with other taxa through positive, negative, and neutral interactions. In collaboration with Stéphane Dray (Univ. Lyon 1, France CNRS) and Vincent Miele (France CNRS), our research focuses on understanding and predicting how these biotic interactions scale up to affect the structure and function of ecological communities and patterns of biodiversity from local to global scales.
To quantify the changes in species turnover and network structure over space and time, we use network science (e.g., graph learning) and theoretical modeling to connect ecological networks with spatiotemporal observations of species. However, there is a major gap in knowledge of biotic interactions (especially species interactions), known as the "Eltonian shortfall". We help fill this gap by creating metanetworks (also known as metawebs), which are networks of potential interactions that incorporate knowledge of empirically observed or ecologically feasible interactions among the species present in a pre-defined region. We create metanetworks through systematic literature review, taxonomic expertise, and assistance from AI. We have 3 main projects focusing on MetaNetworks: the Avian MetaNetwork, the La Selva-Volcan Barva MetaNetwork, and the National Ecological Observatory (NEON) MetaNetwork. See below for more details on each. We dedicate this work to our colleague and collaborator, Marc Ohlmann (1992-2023) |
Avian MetaNetwork
The AvianMetaNetwork consists of birds and their interacting species. We integrate information with Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birds of the World, and systematic literature review to compile the AvianMetaNetwork. We are currently focused on North America and expanding to Central and South America.
Network analyses with these data from local to continental scales includes the North American Breeding Bird Survey and eBird occurrence data. Lab Members: Phoebe Zarnetske, Lucas Mansfield, Kelly Kapsar, Jenna Baljunas, Emily Parker, India Hirschowitz, Caroline Roche, Giovanni DePasquale, Liz Bauer, Elliot Palmer, Jamie Soehl, Olive Graves, Addison Hoddinott, Vivian Smith. Collaborators: Vincent Miele (CNRS), Stéphane Dray (Univ. Lyon 1/ CNRS), Julian Venegas (MSU ICER), Dirk Colbry (MSU CMSE), Cornell Lab of Ornithology Funding: 1-yr MSU EEB Seed Grant (2025) GitHub: https://github.com/AvianMetaNetwork Preprints: |
La Selva-Volcan Barva MetaNetwork
The MetaNetwork of fauna and flora along the La Selva - Volcan Barva elevation gradient (~2900m) in Costa Rica is being generated to evaluate how ecological community structure and function has changed over time and space in response to climate and species turnover. In addition to producing a comprehensive metanetwork dataset, this research harmonizes numerous studies' spatiotemporal data on organisms along the gradient.
Lab members: Phoebe Zarnetske, Jenna Baljunas, Kelly Kapsar Collaborators include numerous researchers with current and prior studies along the gradient. Funding: NSF GRFP to Jenna Baljunas (9/2026-8/2029). Website: https://space-lab-msu.github.io/LaSelvaMetaNetwork.github.io/ |
NEON MetaNetwork
A MetaNetwork of NEON organisms across Terrestrial & Aquatic NEON sites will provide a unique data product for numerous researchers. With this metanetwork, we will evaluate how network structure and function differs across ecosystems over time, and how environmental changes affect network resiliency now and into the future (with a combination of empirical and theoretical network modeling).
Our initial metanetworks and associated network analyses are focused on Mayfield Creek and Talladaga National Forest sites. Lab Members: Phoebe Zarnetske, Lucas Mansfield, Minyoung Lee, Kelly Kapsar Collaborators: Eric Sokol (NEON), Chris Klausmeier (MSU KBS), Alisha Shah (MSU KBS), Angela Strecker and Alicia McGrew (Western Washington U) Funding: National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) RS-2025-02653476 (9/2025-8/2026); 1-yr MSU EEB Seed Grant (2026). |